It’s been a really, really nice week.
I passed my dive instructor exams and spent this week doing speciality instructor courses. It was much more chill and I got some fun dives in, which I was missing like crazy. I always tell people diving is my yoga – I have a hard time getting ‘zen’ in my life, but as soon as I hit the water and start going down my brain finally turns off and gives me a break for 55 minutes. Someone at the dive shop was talking about underwater headphones the other day, and for me personally, I can’t think of anything worse. Dives are the only time I get any quiet in my head, and I need that in my life.
Our house is a little different now – 4 out of the 6 people living here have left, one home to France, one home to England, and two to Costa Rica to have an adventure there. I am missing my Roatan family a little bit but this place is always changing and people come and go, you have to be able to roll with it or it will make you sad. I’ve been here almost three months now and I’m getting used to meeting awesome people and then they leave – but then more awesome people come.
I love my friends here.
We have new roommates now, a couple from the States. They are pretty rad. And everyone is happy because no one has to sleep on the couch or the floor anymore! It’s a little more relaxed with only four people here too.
Next on the agenda is getting a job. I have something lined up but it’s not 100% sure yet so I don’t want to jinx it. I don’t think I will have trouble finding work though.
I just had a look through my archives and can’t find anything about this, and I can’t believe I forgot to tell you all… but about a month ago the TV show Private Islands came to Roatan to film, and they came to our dive shop to do a Discover Scuba Diving course and get some footage (our shop/resort is on a private cay). It was fun and I got to do some of the underwater filming because they were just learning to dive. You can see me at about 1:33 helping the host get off the boat, and the black & grey fins in the diving shots are mine! Here’s a sneak peek of some of the footage, they haven’t finished the actual show yet…
Today is my first real day off in ages. I am hungover, have nothing to do, and it’s a beautiful sunny, breezy day here. These are the kind of days that remind me that I live on a tropical island, and pretty much have the best life ever. Things get me down sometimes, same as back in Canada, but then I remember that my work clothes are now flipflops, I sometimes find seahorses, I live by the beach, and I can get lunch for 3 bucks. Life is good.
It makes me feel good that you didn’t think you’d have any trouble finding work! I’ve been binging on your blog because I’m moving to Utila in May to get my IDC/MSDT (I’m already a DM–I got that in Utila, too, and lived there for six months while I did it) then I plan to look for a job as an instructor in Utila or Roatan. I know you’ve moved on with your life, but as someone moving to the Bay Islands from Texas, I’m really loving your blog!
Hey Mitch!!
Wow, I haven’t looked at these old posts in a quite a while! You might find things changed a bit as you keep reading 🙂 I wish you the best of luck and urge you to consider doing your IDC on the island you’d like to work on – they each tend to look down their noses at the other one a bit for dive training (Roatan likes to call Utila the “Koh Tao of the Caribbean” and not in a loving way). IDC instructor connections also are instrumental in getting work. I wasn’t worried about getting a job in this post because – I couldn’t write it at the time – but the resort where I did my IDC offered me a job before I even started the IDC. If I had to go out and look for work on my own (especially in the middle of slow season) things might not have been so peachy keen!
Best of luck and say hi to the reef for me when you get back. I miss it something fierce.
Cheers,
Rika
😂 That is an amusing fair comparison! “What did you come for?” “Diving, but what else is there to do?” “Diving.” “And?” “Um, did I say Diving?”
I already put down a $400 deposit at a particular shop on Utila and I really am a fan of it, but hopefully I will still be able to find some work when I get my MSDT in July on one of the islands, but do you think it’s worth it to contact several shops on Roatan and see if I could get any guarantees of job offers? I assume none really do that regularly and it just happened for you since you had a friend there. The guy who owns my shop says he has never had any instructors who wanted to stay in the Bay Islands unable to find a job there, but who knows how much of that is true or not. (As a former teacher in America, I have learned to take most of what comes out of people’s mouths with three cups and a spoonful of salt.) 😉 I only have the money to stay through the end of July to find a job, though.
Actually, would you mind if I emailed you about this so I could be more specific about my plans? I understand if you don’t have the time—like I said, I was also a teacher and know how many hours a week THAT takes (at least where I worked!)
Hi Mitch,
I will let you know there is NO WAY any dive shop in Roatan would guarantee a job offer for someone who isn’t even there. They have their own IDCs/IEs there with a steady supply of instructors who have done their DM and IDC there so already know the reef and are already living on Roatan. You definitely have to just walk around to shops with a CV and let people know you’re available for freelance work which would hopefully work into permanent work somewhere.
There are plenty of people who weren’t able to secure enough work to live on. So maybe what he said is technically true – people can probably always find work here and there. But enough work to support yourself on Roatan (which is way more expensive than Utila) means you need full-time work and that’s not always available… and in slow season it’s basically not available at all (the shops mostly work on a seniority-based system so whoever has been there longest gets offered the work first).
Keep in mind that summer/fall in the Bay Islands is slow season, and Sept-Oct is when most shops close for renovations/vacations/dry docking the boats for repairs since it’s so slow. Oct through November there are often a lot of storms. This is a very, very difficult time to find consistent work so please make sure you have a cushion of funds to get you through until high season in December! Don’t forget to factor in the cost of a 4-day visa run every 90 days too….
If you have more questions, feel free to email me at rika@cubiclethrowdown.com!!